Reminders
by nic73
Summary: I don't know who, or what @mammab72 is but I've seen the ring/vest challenge here on fanfiction and I hope that she/they don't mind that I've taken it on board. When Jane moves in, Lisbon has a surprising find. A one shot.


**Author's notes: Hope you enjoy.**

Lisbon unlock her door with deep satisfaction. When Abbot came to her and told her she could go home an hour early, she was ready. She knows she should have felt a little guilty as Jane's stuck there until late in to the night. Abbot needed him. but ninety-nine times out of a hundred Jane's the one who's usually dismissed early, while she labours through paperwork. Admittedly he's usually broken into her house and has a delicious meal waiting.

He'd looked wistfully at her through Abbot 's office window as she' d waved at him. A moment later she heard her name being called, loudly,and as she turned, and everyone else in the room, he'd blown her a kiss with a wicked grin playing on his lips. She's certain her face was glowing as she rode the elevator down. She's forgiven him on the journey home after all, his mischievous nature is part of what she loves about him. She can expect to fall foul sometimes.

She smiles as she enters the living room and sees the small pile of boxes standing up against the wall. She forgot he was dropping them off this morning. No more breaking in, he now has a key.

She places her washed plate on the drainer and releases the plug and grabs a hand towel as the water drains away. Going back into the living room, she goes to his boxes, having decided that although she can't greet him with dinner (he'll be home much too late for that), she can start putting his things away.

She hangs up the last of his shirts, there was plenty of room in her closet, she should have realised that anything that could fit into his airstream could fit into her closet. For a complicated man, he has uncomplicated tastes. There's just the one box left that's labeled 'bedroom'. She opens it to find his socks, and curiously, another box. She picks it up, somehow knowing that it's something personal. She stares at it in her hands for a while before deciding maybe this is one Jane should open himself. She reaches across to lay it on the bed. She doesn't judge it right and in horror she watches the box fall to the ground and it's contents fall to the floor. For a moment she's rooted to the spot as she takes in the items now spilled out on her bedroom carpet.

"What...when...How did he get this stuff?"

She picks up the brown hair brush, the long red hair entangled among the bristles, identifies who it belongs to. She wonders if Van Pelt even realised it was missing, she's never mentioned it. Jane always had a soft spot for Grace. He probably admired her spunk at the table when she had her first meal with the team. Jane could have teased her mercilessly but whenever he indulged, there was always a gentle tone to his voice. Did that go unnoticed by Grace too?

She opens the book and printed in red ink at the top of the first page, the name 'Cho'. He's still a voracious reader. It makes him the worse cop to be on stake out with. The concentration required to read and keep watch meant little was left over for conversation. With Jane it was always a good opportunity to tease and talk about nonsense, but then, sometimes he would let something meaningful slip. It was never boring.

The pen she recognises as Rigsby's. She certain Jane lifted this from Rigsby's pocket, he always found him an easy mark, even suggesting her niece use him as pratice. She was pretty good to. Jane said she took to it like a duck to water and is she sure there's no carni genes in the family. Rigsby loved Jane's tricks, the more elaborate the better. She shakes her head, the card in the dead body, though highly irregular, was a good one.

At the final item she lets out an exclamation.

"Jane!"

"What?"

She jumps out of her skin, and as she recovers, she looks up to see Jane in the doorway a silly grin on his face.

"Serves you right for looking through my stuff."

"It was an accident, it fell while I was putting it on the bed and I was just picking them up."

"Mmmm"

He walks in and sits on the edge of the bed. She holds up the item in her hand puzzled. He takes it off her.

"I had a copy made."

"Why?"

"I wanted something dear to you, and it was either this, or the cross, I thought this was the better option."

"Is this the copy?"

Jane shakes his head and looks incredulously at her.

"Of course not, I put the copy back into your frame, what would be the point of me having the copy? I wanted something...something.."

He looks to the floor and then meets her eyes, his voice choked with emotion.

"Something that you'd touched, that was a part of you."

She stands up and sits down beside him, taking his hand.

"How did you get this stuff?"

He shrugs.

"When I realised that McAllister was Red John, I collected the stuff. Sleeping upstairs gave me plenty of opportunity. I knew I would probably have to leave, and I found I couldn't just walk away."

He waves his hand at the items.

"These things made it easier."

Lisbon reaches down and picks up the one thing that didn't fall out of the box, a grey waistcoat.

"I miss these."

Jane looks at her in surprise.

"You do?"

She grins at him.

"When you came in wearing the three-piece suit that first day after Minelli hired you..."

"You did tell me to clean up."

"You were a mess. I thought it was goofy looking and it certainly disarmed many people, but.."

"But?"

Jane looks at her intriguingly as a blush appears on her cheeks.

"But when you took your jacket off, you looked pretty hot."

An amused and self satisfying smile spreads across Jane's face.

"Really?"

Lisbon can feel her blush in full bloom now.

"Most definitely, yes!"

"Wow! I never realised. Well done at hiding that from me."

Jane stands up and shrugs off his jacket. He takes the vest from her hands and fingers it.

"This is the one I wore when I..."

"When you killed him."

Jane nods.

He looks at her.

"I would have kept my cup, but if you remember it got broken."

"Yea, I don't think I'll ever forget that day."

Jane's eyes twinkle at her.

"Lucky break for you though."

He slides his arms through and fastens the top button. Lisbon stands up and takes over, when she;s finished she unfastens the button on his right cuff and rolls it up, doing the same with the left. Jane rolls his eyes.

"Why do I feel like I'm being used to fulfil a fantasy."

Lisbon looks up at him with a gleam in her eyes.

"You've barely started yet."

Jane grins at her and takes her in his arms.

"Now you're talking."

He kisses her.


End file.
